The pandemic has re-ignited my gardening drive.
Along with an indoor seed starting space and a greenhouse that no longer sinks into the garden, the calendar has just turned to 2021 and I already have a number of tomato varieties on the mind.
First, is the Garden Gem. A hybrid variety developed in the Klee Lab at the University of Florida. They sought to identify the compounds that make tomatoes taste great, the heirloom varieties that are high in those compounds, and hybridized them with ‘easy-to-grow’, but otherwise less flavourful varieties. The Garden Gem, by their accounts, “produces massive numbers of delicious oval fruits that average 2-2.5 ounces” and “is an early producer, giving ripe fruits about 60-65 days after transplanting”.
The Klee Lab lists flavourful, [heirlooms and their cultivars] varieties in descending tastiness as: Maglia Rosa Cherry, Garden Gem, Early Red Chief, B hybrid, Tasti-Lee, St. Pierre, and Peron Sprayless, etc. I will be definitely looking for some of the Maglia Rosa Cherry and it looks like West Coast Seed will have some Tasti-Lees.
The second set of tomato seeds comes from an eBay order to a seed collector/producer in Greece. The seeds arrived in small ziplock bags with hand-printed labels. From that group are: Roma VF, Santorinis, and San Marzanos. They also sell St. Pierres, from the list above. (The fig seeds I got from this same, Greek producer have grown into small plants indoors. I plan to move them to large pots in the spring.)
It will be interesting to track how all these seeds will do, so far away from where they were produced.
| Variety | Seeded | Germ. Rate | Transplanted | Planted | Growing Environment | First Harvest | Last Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden Ruby (D) | 2021-03-07 | 2/3 | |||||
| Garden Treasure (I) | 2021-03-07 | 2/3 | |||||
| Garden Gem | 2021-03-07 | 3/3 | |||||
| San Marzano | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Rio Grande | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Santorinis | 2021-03-07 | 5/6 | |||||
| Roma | 2021-03-07 | 0/6 | |||||
| Sugary Cherry | 2021-03-14 | 3/3 |
2021-03-10 – Klee Lab seeds arrived last week. Planted them and the Greek-origin seed into rock wool cubes under LED grow lights indoors on Sunday, March 7, 2021.
2021-03-23 – Seed germinated about a week ago. Dipped rock wool cubes in MG Seedling fertilizer solution.
Growing Tips
Planting
Transplant from pot deeply: up to the first true leaves.
Watering
Keep the soil evenly moist and nutrient rich.
Pruning
Indeterminate (Vine): Pinch all suckers from the ground up to the second set of flowers.
Determinate (Bush): Pinch all suckers from the ground up to the first set of flowers.
In July, start to prune away the leaves around ripening fruit to improve air circulation and access to light.
Avoiding Disease
Blossom End Rot is due to a calcium deficiency. Add bone meal, lime or crushed up egg shells to the soil.